The attorney representing Brittany Gosney, the Middletown woman charged with murder in the death of her 6-year-old son, hopes to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity in her upcoming trial.
“Defendant struggles to assist in her defense and counsel has serious concerns regarding defendant’s mental health,” attorney David Washington wrote in a motion filed Wednesday afternoon.
Washington will seek a competency evaluation, a court-ordered mental health assessment meant to determine the defendant’s ability to understand the charges against them and assist in their own defense.
Gosney, 29, was arrested Feb. 28 after attempting to report the disappearance of her 6-year-old son, James Hutchinson. Police became suspicious when she and her boyfriend, James Hamilton, could not agree on when they had last seen the child.
“The whole situation was just red flags all over,” Middletown police Chief David Birk said in the first news conference after her arrest.
According to police, Gosney confessed shortly after her arrest that Hutchinson had died during an attempted abandonment. Hamilton had been pressuring her to get rid of her three children, she said, so she took them to Rush Run Wildlife Area, made them get out of her car and began to drive away.
Hutchinson hung on to the vehicle. Gosney kept driving, dragging him until he let go. Some police documents indicate the first-grader may have also been run over.
Police said Gosney confessed to loading Hutchinson’s body back into her car 30 minutes later, concealing it overnight in her Middletown home and dumping it in the Ohio River with Hamilton’s help on Sunday.
Hutchinson’s remains have not yet been recovered.
